Alarm clock



May 2, 1933. F. WEHlNGER ALARM CLOCK Filed Dec. 26, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheetl May 2, 1933. WEH|NGER 1,907,133

ALARM CLOCK Filed Dec. 26, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented May 2, 1933FREDERICK WEHINGER, OF WATERBURY,

CLOCK COMPANY, OF W'ATERBURY,

PATENT FFEQE CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO WATERBURY CQNNECTIC'UT, A.QGRTEORATION ALARM oLocK Application filed December 26, 1929.

My invention relates to an improvement in alarm clocks, the object beingto produce a simple, reliable and convenient mechanism therefor,designed to sound a relativelybrief warning-alarm, and, at thetermination of a predetermined interval thereafter, the ,final orfull-alarm.

With these ends in view, my invention consists in an alarm-mechanismhaving certain details of construction and combinations of parts as willbe hereinafter described and pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a view in rear elevation of an alarm-clock embodying myinvention;

Fig. 2 is a view in front elevation of the movement and bell thereof asdetached from the clock-case;

Fig. 3 is a broken view in vertical tran "11550 verse section on theline 3-3 of Fig. 2, showing the short warningalarm control-pin engagedwith the control-slide;

Fig. lis a corresponding view but showing the parts in the positions duethem after the sounding of the warning-alarm and before the sounding ofthe full-alarm with the long full-alarm control-pin engaged with thecontrol-slide;

Fig. 5 is a detached perspective view of the alarm-cam wheel and itsdouble alarmcam;

Fig. 6 is a similar view of the alarmescapement wheel;

Fig. 7 is a detached perspective view of T735 the alarm-control slide;

Serial No. 416,849.

warnin -a arm dwell 18 and a full-alarm drop 19 di ectly beneath whichis the lowpoint 20 the cam-rise 21 which merges at about the point 22into a relatively-long dwell 23 which terminates at the warningn drop 1?aforesaid. ris thus constructed, JllG alarm-cam 15, though but a singleelen ent, operates a double cam, the drop from its long dwell 23 to thestart 20 of the rise 21 being divided in o two stages by the shortwarningalarm dwell 18. The alarmcam as thus constructed is operated byan alarm cam finger 2% projecting radially from a collect 25 staked uponthe forward end of an alarm-set-staff 26 having bearing near its forwardand rear ends, respectively, in the front and back plates 27 and 28 ofthe clockmovement and provided at its projecting rear end with afinger-button 29 by which the staff is turned for setting the alarm. Thealarm-wheel 16 is mounted, as usual, upon the forward end of thealarm-set-staff 26 with freedom for rotary and axial sliding movementthereupon and, as common in alarm clocks, it meshes into theminutepinion 30 of the usual dial-work of the timetrains of such clocks.

The axial movement upon the staff 26 of the alarm-wheel 16 and hence ofthe alarmcam 15 is provided for, as usual, by a flat sheet-metalalarm-cam-spring 31 secured at its outer end by a screw 32 to the frontmovement-plate 27 and having an elongated clearance-opening 33 throughwhich the staff 26 passes. This spring, as common in suchalarm-mechanisms, engages with the inner face of the alarm-wheel 16 andexerts a constant effort to move the same and the double alarm-cam 15axially outward upon the stafi' 26 so as to maintain the shaped outeredge of the cam in constant engagement with the alarm cam-finger 2 faforesaid.

t its free end the spring 31 is formed with a rectangular notch 34producing complementary fingers 35 respectively entering notches 36 inthe opposite edges of a flat sheet-metal rectangular alarm-control slide37 bearing at its outer end in a slot 38 in an arm 39 offset from abracket 40 secured by screws 41 to the front movement-plate 27. At itsinner end the said control-slide 37 has bearing in a slot 42 in the saidfront movement-plate. The control-slide as thus constructed and mountedhas rectilinear movement in a plane parallel with the axis of theclock-movement, its projecting inner end alternately co-acting with ashort warning-alarm control-pin 43, and a longer fullalarm control-pin44. Both of the pins are carried by and project forwardly from analarm-escapement wheel 45 also carrging a rearwardly-projectingalarm-shut-o pin 46. The alarm-escapement wheel 45 co-acts, as usual,with a verge 47 on an oscillating verge-shaft 48 mounting a hammer-arm49 carrying a hammer 50 located adjacent to the inner face of the flange51 of the bell 52.

'The alarm-shut-ofi' pin 46 aforesaid c0- acts with the sto -tooth 53 ofan alarmshut-ofl' lever 54 pivotally hung between its endsupon a pivot55 in the front movementlate 27. At its upper end the said lever is gentrearwardly to form an operating-finger 56 projecting through a slot 57(Fig. 1) in the back 58 of the clock-case 59, so as to be available formanual manipulation by the user of the clock. At its lower end the saidlever is provided with a rearwardlyturned operating-finger 60 positionedfor enga ement b the outermost convolution of the alarm-spring 61 forthe automatic operation of the lever, so that, in case the lever is notmanually operated for shutting off the full-alarm, the same will beultimateliy shut of by the alarm-spring as it expan s into engagementwith the said finger 60 as the alarm-train runs down, whereby the leveris rocked on the pivot 55 to bring its stoptooth 53 into the path of thealarm-stoppin 46.

To suit the tastes of individual users of the clock, I provide means forregulating the volume of sound from the maximum, to the minimum thatwill answer the purpose. For this purpose I locate within the bell(Figs. 10 and 11 an alarm-muffler lever 62 hung at its inner end on apivot 63 and at its outer end carrying an alarm-mufller plate 64furnished with a fastening-arm 65 by which it is secured by rivets 66 tothe free end of the lever, the plate 64 being positioned to liealongside the inner face of the flange 51 of the bell but not concentrictherewith. An operating-arm 67 secured to the outer end of the lever 62,passes rearwardly through a clearance-slot 68 (Fig. 1) in the back 58 ofthe clock-case 59. By means of this operating-am the mufiler-plate 64may he cleared entirely from the bell-hammer 50 which is then free toimpinge directly upon the flange of the bell so as to produce themaximum volume of noise. As the lever 62 is moved upward by itsoperating-handle 67, the end of the mufller-plate 64 is advanced at anangle between the bell-hammer 50 and the bell-flange 51, whereby thedistance between the hammer and flange is progressively increased withthe effect of correspondingly decreasing the effective force of thehammer upon the bell-flange and correspondingly reducing the volume ofthe sound, since the impact of the hammer is then transmitted throughthe mufller-plate and a progressively-longer section thereof.

The other details of the clock chosen for the illustration of myinvention may follow approved practice and do not call for detaileddescription.

Coming now to the operation of my improved alarm-mechanism, let it beassumed that the parts thereof are in their normal positions (Figs. 2and 3), the shut-oil lever 54 bein in its retired position and the inneren of the control-slide 37 being engaged by the short warning-alarmcontrolpin 43. Now in the running of the timetrain of the clock, thealarm-cam wheel 16 is rotated and hence the double alarm-cam 15 beneaththe cam-finger 24 on the alarm set-staff 26. As soon in the rotation ofthe cam 15 as the warning-alarm drop 17 passes fully from under the camfinger 24, the alarm-cam wheel 16 and the alarm-cam 15 will be snappedaxially forward on the stafi 26 by the alarmcam-spring 31 until theshort warning-alarm dwell 18 is brought into engagement (Fig. 4) withthe rear face of the said finger 24, whereby the controlslide 37 ismoved outwardly sufiiciently to disen age its inner end from the shortwarning-a arm control-pin 43, releasing the escapement-wheel 45 to theaction of the alarm-spring 61, for clockwise rotation until thefull-alarm control-pin 44 is brought into engagement with the nowpartially-retired control-slide 37. The parts of the mechanism now occupthe positions in which 't are shown in ig. 4. During this interva inwhich a partial rotation only of the escapement-wheel 45 takes place, awarningalarm of short duration is sounded.

The continued rotation, under the action of the time-train, of thealarm-wheel 16 and the alarm-cam 15, gradually moves the shortwarning-alarm dwell 18 out from under the alarm-cam finger 24sufiiciently to clear the full-alarm-drop 19 from it, whereupon thespring 31 acts to move the wheel 16 and cam 15 further outward until thestart 20 of the cam-rise 21 is engaged with 'the inner face of thealarm-cam finger 24. Concurrently with the action above described, thespring 31 has moved the alarm-control slide 37 to the limit of itsoutward movement, in which its inner end is disengaged from the longfull-alarm control-pin 44.

The alarm-train is thus again released, permitting the alarm-escapementwheel 45 to continuously rotate clockwise until the user of the clockmanually moves the shutoff lever 54 by its operating-finger 56 to bringthe shut-0H tooth 53 of the lever into the path of the stop-pin 46projecting rearwardly from the escapement-wheel 45, or until theexpansion of the alarm-spring 61, acting through the finger 60 of theshut-off lever 54, automatically acts to rock the lever 54 and swing itstooth 53 into the path of the said stop-pin 46.

It may now be noted that the pins 43 and 44, carried by theescapement-wheel 45, are so positioned relatively to each other and tothe pin 46 that when the latter is engaged with the nose 53 of theshutoff lever 54, the short warning-alarm control-pin 43 will be inposition to engage with the inner end of the control-slide 37 when theshut-off lever is manually operated to disengage its tooth 53 from thepin 46, so that the parts will be left in readiness to sound thewarningfull-alarms in proper sequence, when the action of the time-trainautomatically releases the alarm-train.

Now in the running of the time-train of the clock, the rise 21 of thecam will slowly ride under the alarm-cam finger 24 and push thealarm-wheel 16 and its cam 15 axially inward on the staff 26 against thetension of the spring 31, whereby the alarm-control slide 37 will bemoved inward suificiently to enter the path of the short warning-alarmcontrol-pin 43 to be engaged thereby as soon as the shut-off lever hasbeen swung into its retired position.

In the continued running of the timetrain, the long dwell 23 of thedouble alarmcam 15 slowly rides under the alarm-cam finger 24 until thewarning-alarm drop 17 passes fully from under the finger 24, after whichthe cycle of operations already rehearsed is repeated.

I claim:

1. In an alarm clock for sounding a warning-alarm followed at apredetermined interval by a full-alarm, the combination with the timeandalarm-trains thereof, of an alarm-control slide limited to rectilinearmovement and engageable with a running part of the said alarm-train,means for positively guiding said slide into and out of position forengagement with said part and for supporting same when engaged by saidpart, and means controlled by the said time-train for causing the saidcontrol-slide to retire in a two-step movement.

2. In an alarm clock for sounding a warning-alarm followed at apredetermined interval by a full-alarm, the combination with the timeandalarm-trains thereof, of a twodrop alarm-cam driven by the saidtimetrain, an alarm-cam spring, an alarm-control slide limited torectilinear movement and engageable with a running part of the saidalarm-train and connected to the said alarmspring for being retiredthereby in two stages under the control of the said twodrop alarm-cam,and means for positively guiding said slide in its movement under theinfluence of said spring and for supporting it when engaged by saidrunning part.

3. In an alarm clock for sounding a warning-alarm followed at apredetermined interval by a full-alarm, the combination with the timeandalarm-trains thereof, of a pair of complementary abutments carried by arotating member of the said alarm-train; an alarm-control slide limitedto rectilinear movement and adapted to be interposed by stages in thepath of the two said controlabutments; means for positively guiding andsupporting said slide, and means driven by the said time-train forsuccessively disengaging the said slide from the shorter and longer ofthe two control-abutments to per mit the alarm-train to sound awarningalarm at a predetermined time before the sounding of thefull-alarm.

4. In an alarm clock for sounding a warning-alarm followed at apredetermined interval by a full-alarm, the combination with the timeandalarm-trains thereof, of a reciprocating control-slide engageable with arunning part of the said alarm-train, guidemeans for the saidcontrol-slide constructed and arranged to guide the same in arectilinear path, an alarm-cam spring connected to the saidcontrol-slide for moving the same, and an alarm-cam acting through thesaid alarm-cam spring and contoured to effect the retirement of the saidcontrol-slide to release the alarm-train on two occasions to permit thesame to sound a warningalarm and a fullalarm at a predetermined intervalthereafter.

In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification.

FREDERICK VVEHINGER.

